Wall Street opens slightly lower as attention shifts to tomorrow's FOMC announcements

• Trading action turns subdued ahead of FOMC's policy decisions.
• Energy shares slide in early trade following Monday's rally.
• Defensive sectors gain traction to reflect a risk-off atmosphere.

Wall Street's main indexes started the day with small losses on Tuesday as investors are moving to the sidelines while waiting for the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to announce its monetary policy decisions on Wednesday. As of writing, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.21% and 0.12%, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite was virtually unchanged on the day.

Today's data from the US revealed that industrial production in August rose 0.6% to beat the experts' forecast for an increase of 0.2% but failed to help the S&P 500 Industrial Index gain traction, which was last down 0.4% on the day. Meanwhile, following Monday's sharp upsurge fueled by the rising crude oil prices, the Energy Index seems to be making a technical correction and is now losing 0.35%.

On the other hand, the defensive Real Estate and Utilities indexes are both gaining 0.7% in the early trade to suggest that participants are staying away from risk-sensitive stocks.